French authorities say a young man was arrested overnight for allegedly breaking into Paris’ Museum of Natural History and cutting off a tusk from a centuries-old elephant skeleton with a chainsaw.

Museum official Jacques Cuisin told BFM-TV that the skeleton, which was draped under a plastic covering Saturday, belonged to an elephant that Portugal’s king gave to French King Louis XIV in the late 17th century. Cuisin said it can be repaired.

Yeah. It's hard to figure out whether or not Kim Jong Un is like his father and grandfather, spinning the bullshit while knowing its bullshit, or if he's become a true believer and really does buy into the propaganda his country has been saying.

The attack was clear and continuous: crippling restriction of the freedom of the press, political direction of the Central Bank, inclusion in the Constitution of Christian religious references and of the "social utility" of individuals as a necessary condition for the enforcement of social rights, deletion of the word "Republic" in the same Constitution to define the country's political system, condemnation of homosexuality, criminalisation of the homeless, attacks against women's rights, impunity afforded to perpetrators of racist murders, the strengthening of a virulent anti-Semitism . .

Now it might seem like Hungary might as well be fucking Narnia or something but it is right at the centre of Europe and the EU have decided to look the other way.

This point is raised in the article, indeed there is little financial imperitive to take action but correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't ensuring democratic stability in Europe the core founding principle of the EU (of course if one of the Hungarian banks was threatening to take down a substantial amount of German bank capital then I'm sure they'd riding straight on in there..)

But as a citizen of europe I require that the EU, and the Council Of Europe stand up for their core function of preserving democratic freedoms in Europe, or else they may as well pack up and give the continent back to the barbarians, fascists and the belligerent.

Now, a time where a historic number of hard won freedoms are being sacrificed at the alter of the financial institutions in the name of austerity is the very time that people demand greater from those they elect.

Sorry for ranting but I do not accept that there isn't anything worth doing here, or that the political class is capable of dealing with only a single problem at a time.

“Kindness” covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.-

Jindal’s voucher schools will be free to teach lessons like slave owners were pretty good guys, “A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well.”—United States History for Christian Schools, 2nd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 1991.”

In Jindal Land’s classrooms, the KKK is really a reform organization that was concerned with morality, “[The Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians.”—United States History for Christian Schools, 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2001?

A retired Italian carpenter has been arrested after his sleuthing wife suspected he was trying to poison her and set about trying to prove it with the help of a spy alarm clock bought on the internet.

The drama began in February in the northern Italian town of Dalmine, where the couple had reportedly lived for almost 40 years. The 61-year-old woman grew suspicious when some water brought to her by her husband created a burning sensation in her mouth.

The woman, who has not been named, sent it off for tests in a laboratory, which, when they came back, revealed the presence of hydrochloric acid.

But the best part ?

The man admits putting poison in his wife's water but denies trying to kill her. He told police he had been trying to make her a little unwell to ease her obsessional interest in planning pilgrimages and listening to the Catholic radio station Radio Maria.

If I was this guy's lawyer, I'd tell him to shut up and let me do the talking.